Bruce Newman wished to shock his spouse with a visit for her seventy fifth birthday, and the New Brunswick, Canada, retiree thought he had all of it deliberate, recalling their go to to New York a decade in the past when she turned 65, they usually celebrated with a Broadway present.
But final 12 months, as he started to map out the journey, he felt stung first by President Donald Trump’s determination to impose tariffs, and once more when discuss of re-christening Canada the 51st state was bandied about.
The ultimate straw, he stated, was watching — with horror — as ICE battled American residents in Minnesota. He booked a visit to London as a substitute, the place he and his spouse, Helen Jean, noticed “The Book of Mormon” in early March.
“I actually think we are at war with the US and people don’t realize it,” Newman stated in an interview with NCS. “It’s an economic war.”
Newman is certainly one of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who’ve ceased touring to the US since Trump took workplace final 12 months.
In 2024, greater than 20 million Canadians visited the US, in response to the U.S. Travel Association — greater than some other nationality.
But ultimate figures posted on Friday by the US National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), present a 21% drop in Canadian arrivals final 12 months in contrast with 2024 — representing about 4.2 million fewer Canadian guests.
Gone, for a lot of Canadians, are the splashy visits to New York City, the ritual summer time stays in Maine, the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariner video games, and the months spent below the Florida solar {golfing} or at Disney World. Some Canadians who dwell near the US are even forgoing common cross-border buying journeys to Maine, Michigan, New York and different border states the place they as soon as may buy gadgets for a lot much less.
In the house of 1 12 months, a friendship between the two nations that dates again a number of centuries and features a shared tradition has been ruptured, probably with everlasting repercussions.
Some Canadians say they don’t know when they’ll come back to the US.
“We don’t feel welcome to cross that border,” stated Susan Morell, a retired authorities communications director who canceled a 2025 journey to Disney World along with her grandchildren.
Morell, whose ancestors left New York for Canada in 1783 following the American Revolution, added, “The American people are finally starting to see we are not just an extension of their country.”
The journeys Canadians have canceled affect quite a few areas of the US and rob many states of tourism {dollars} which have as a substitute gone to different locations, together with Mexico and Europe.
Todd Johnson is in Mexico now. That’s as a result of he loves enjoying golf, and his dream was to spend six weeks {golfing} in Arizona as soon as he stopped working. The Saskatchewan resident has taken golf vacations in the States for years, visiting resorts in each Arizona and Florida for fun-filled journeys together with his buddies.
After 40 years working in the HVAC trade, he lastly retired final 12 months. But as a substitute of visiting Phoenix this winter as he’d lengthy deliberate, he and his spouse went to the Yucatán Peninsula.
At a rental close to Cancun, Johnson stated he was surrounded by Canadians doing the similar factor — spending a part of the winter months in a heat locale that wasn’t in the US.
“My friends are the same way. They’re not going to the States,” Johnson stated in an interview throughout his six-week keep. “We’re not giving America any of our money.”
He added, “We will vote with our wallets.”
In 2024, the common Canadian customer arriving by air stayed 7.34 nights and spent $1,090 whereas in the United States, according to NTTO figures.
The political rhetoric geared toward ridiculing Canada bothers Johnson. Like many Canadians, he can’t fathom why some American voters elected Trump twice.
But it’s one thing else that he considers mind-blowing, and which makes it a lot simpler to cancel journey plans to the US.
“The stuff that happened in Minnesota — we’re horrified by that,” he stated, referring to the deaths of Americans Renée Good and Alex Pretti at the fingers of ICE officers. “We don’t want to get caught up in anything.”
That sums up April Scott’s emotions, too. Scott and her husband gained a five-day cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line final 12 months. But after they discovered their solely choice was to depart from Florida, they quietly walked away.
It would have been good to go to the Caribbean courtesy of a free cruise, however Scott couldn’t probability it.
“It is not that far-fetched that we fly down to Florida and all of a sudden Trump says he hates Canada and he seizes our passports, and we’re stuck,” stated Scott, who lives in British Columbia.
Similarly, she determined in opposition to a household journey to Disney World along with her kids and her sister’s household, although they’ve had a number of great vacations at the amusement park in Florida earlier than. The 17-person group will as a substitute go to Disneyland Paris later this 12 months.
Some Canadians aren’t merely canceling journeys. Some of them are promoting actual property that they had already purchased in the US for his or her retirement.
When Anita and Tom Hitchcock purchased a apartment in Florida in 2023, they started renovating their second house instantly.
But after Trump was re-elected, the Hitchcocks, who dwell in New Brunswick, started to query whether or not they wished to spend their hard-earned cash on American services and products for the property in Lake Wales, some 50 miles south of Orlando.
“You’re sitting in Florida and you’re spending your retirement money there, not at home, and at some point, you just have to wonder,” Tom stated of the couple’s pondering.
They had been particularly incensed when President Trump referred to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau” in a tweet. Tom additionally questioned Trump’s belittling of Canada with taunts, and assist for the separatist movement in the province of Alberta.
“Now you’re trying to influence Canadian domestic policy and that’s not cool,” he stated.
Anita stated it exhibits Americans didn’t actually respect Canadians.
“I always thought, ‘We are nice neighbors, we go and spend our money there and then we go home,’” she stated. “We Canadians are happy to go home. I always thought that was respected and appreciated.”
So they offered their Florida apartment final 12 months and spent the winter touring by way of South America.
“I find this whole situation sad — sad and unnecessary,” Anita stated in a Zoom interview from Santiago, Chile, in early March.
Some Canadians additionally say they are eliminating enterprise journey to the US.
Gilles Heroux has been attending the InfoComm audiovisual trade conference for many years. But this 12 months it’s taking place in Las Vegas, and Heroux stated he gained’t be there.
“With Trump, every week there is an insult,” he stated.
Heroux, a Montreal video conferencing tools integrator, stated he opted to attend an identical commerce present in Barcelona in February as a substitute.
“I no longer have confidence in the current political direction of the United States, and I do not wish to support, through travel or purchasing power, a system that I fundamentally disagree with,” Heroux stated.
Some Canadians are nonetheless visiting the US. With the lengthy winters up North, and the heavy snowfall this 12 months, the lure of Florida stays robust.
Stuart Kinsinger and his spouse, Laurel, are staying in Sarasota, Florida, which they’ve been visiting for many years. Kinsinger, who lives close to Toronto and teaches healthcare ethics, stated he’s an unbiased and Americans are entitled to their very own political views.
He additionally stated the climate in Florida proper now’s lovely, and he enjoys working and pickleball there.
“We love it too much here to consider somewhere else,” he stated.
But in comparison with previous years, he says it’s noticeable how few Canadians are visiting.
Kinsinger visited the US in August, and he stated that go to was additionally gentle on fellow Canadians.
“We were in Maine last summer and we were the only Canadian vehicle that we saw, and that’s high season,” he stated. “That really surprised us.”
Observers say there are few precedents in the historical past of relations between the two nations, partly as a result of the verbal assaults in opposition to Canada have been so exceptional.
“This is really unique so it’s difficult to say how long it will last,” stated Xavier Delgado, a Canada-US analyst related to the nonpartisan suppose tank, the Wilson Center, in Washington, DC.
He stated the White House doesn’t seem motivated to tone down anti-Canada rhetoric, which he stated Canadians see as “an insult.”
“It is really the rhetoric that has been the wedge between the two countries,” he stated. “Until that is eliminated, I don’t see the situation improving.”
The shift away from the US isn’t with out sacrifices, Canadians say.
Newman, who visited London as a substitute of New York, stated the determination required costlier airfare.
“This is a lot more cumbersome,” he stated, though he stated general, the journey was great.
Other Canadian households who determined in opposition to going to Disney have had powerful selections to make. After canceling their journey with their grandchildren, the Morells thought of going to Mexico, however the violence stemming from drug cartels finally satisfied them it wasn’t protected.
Some Europeans have additionally felt stung by Trump’s insurance policies, together with the unprecedented calls for over the sovereignty of Greenland.
Overall, arrivals to the US from abroad fell 2.5% in 2025, in response to figures from the National Travel and Tourism Office. Factoring in the important drop in Canadian guests and a 6% enhance in guests from Mexico, general worldwide guests to the US dropped by 5.5% in 2025, in response to NTTO figures.
That dip in arrivals to the United States got here as most locations worldwide posted will increase, in response to UN Tourism’s World Tourism Barometer. Globally, international tourist arrivals grew 4% in 2025.
Delgado stated the actual check lies forward: the summer time World Cup video games, which might be performed in the US, Canada and Mexico.
“Will citizens from all over the world flock to Canada and Mexico instead because they see them as more open than the US?” he requested rhetorically.
Nonetheless, the relationship between the US and Canada has few parallels.
The two share the longest unprotected border in the world, at greater than 5,500 miles. They additionally share a language — English — and a historical past of colonization below the British. And for Canada, the US is the marketplace for greater than 60% of its exports.
All of those points make the rift between the two nations particularly painful.
The Canadians interviewed by NCS don’t take the rupture flippantly, and it’s precipitated some to re-examine their relationship to the US.
“The breakdown of our partnership with the US is really confusing to Canadians,” Johnson stated. “We are your brothers and sisters, and now our family is fractured because of one man and his misguided policies.”
Many Canadians have actual household throughout the border.
Dave Morell grew up visiting kin in Maine; his mom was from a city on the Maine-Canada border. The retired sports activities broadcaster has attended numerous Boston Red Sox video games and New York Rangers video games. Not anymore.
“It’s unfortunate because we loved going. And we loved the American people we met,” he stated.
His spouse, Susan, is damage that so many Americans can neglect the help supplied by Canadians in moments of problem like 9/11 and the Iran hostage disaster in 1980.
For Heroux, the subject goes past attending skilled conferences. He sees the rightward shift in the US as nothing lower than “the fall of the American Empire.”
“For me now, America is a bad guy like Russia,” he stated.
Johnson, on the different hand, stated although he’s in Mexico now, he hopes to sooner or later return to the US. He describes the rift extra charitably, although the impact nonetheless isn’t flattering.
He in contrast America’s political flip to “a drug-addicted family member that we hope to have recover and come back to the fold someday soon.”
“We know that you’ll come back to reality, hopefully without too much collateral damage,” he stated.